Falls Church, Va.—based Sound Room Publishers has launched Pocket University, a nonfiction imprint that company president Joseph Langenfeld describes as "a convenient way to learn." Pocket University kicked off in late July with The Year of the Blog: Blogs, Politics and the 2004 Election and The Name of the Enemy: Jihadi Salafis, a look at Islamic fundamentalism.
According to Langenfeld, most of Pocket University's titles will be new, commissioned works by scholars and journalists that are relatively short in length (one to two hours). The range of topics will include "everything from hip-hop culture to nanotechnology," he said. "These are titles that won't really exist as books; they aim to explain things that most of us don't know very much about."
On August 2, Pocket University released a one-hour CD recording of The 9/11 Commission Report Executive Summary narrated by Grover Gardner, retailing for $8.95. An unabridged CD recording of the entire report, read by such noted narrators as Scott Brick, Barbara Rosenblat and Dick Hill, will be available September 1. This longer retail edition will sell for $110; the library edition is $139. An unabridged cassette edition and an MP3-CD version, each $25, will follow in October. "The entire document is a little daunting for most people," Langenfeld said. "I think the summary will serve them well." There are nearly 10,000 copies of the summary in print.
Langenfeld founded Sound Room Publishers in 1991 with the imprint Commuters Library, largely a collection of unabridged classics, some history and the Bible, distributed to the trade by Atrium. When Atrium went bankrupt Langenfeld concentrated on the library market. In 2002 Langenfeld changed the Commuters Library imprint name to In Audio and re-entered the trade market and also expanded into the educational arena. Sound Room uses Ingram, Bookazine and Baker & Taylor as distributors. In addition, Entertainment Software Inc. is licensed to handle Sound Room's sales to major national accounts, price clubs and mass market discounters. Langenfeld and a staff of three handle other sales, marketing and office/production functions; the remainder of work is contracted out to freelancers.
